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I can’t figure out why I don’t like Anne Hathaway. Or rather, why we don’t. In all the social-media fallout from the Oscars, the Best Supporting Actress winner also almost won Most Detested Figure of the Night, finishing just behind Seth MacFarlane and the idiot at The Onion who tweeted a slur about 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis. “And what the Onion missed is that it's Anne Hathaway who's the real cunt. Right EVERY WOMAN ON THE INTERNET?” tweeted Buzzfeed’s Jack Moore.

Unlike most strangers I claim to dislike (most conservative politicians, some friends’ ex-boyfriends, and the aforementioned MacFarlane), Hathaway and I would probably get along swimmingly. She seems smart and self-possessed, savvy and successful. She’s a spokesperson for Eve Ensler’s anti-violence organization, One Billion Rising. And have you seen the clip of her shutting down Matt Lauer’s creepy questions about her upskirt moment with a measured response about the commodification of female sexuality? It is on point. Yet she leaves me cold.Does EVERY WOMAN ON THE INTERNET baselessly hate Anne Hathaway? I took a quick straw poll. “She is that theater kid with good intentions but secretly annoys the shit out of you,” said one friend, adding, “You want to be excited for her and you are but deep down you are kind of rolling your eyes.” Another replied, “I think someone told her she was America's sweetheart and she believed it.” One friend placed her in the category of “really affected drama queens,” saying, “I can imagine her non-ironically yelling ‘Acting!’” In other words, she’s always on stage, always calculated — not someone you’d want to party with, or share your deepest secrets. “I am an Anne Hathaway supporter,” said a friend who sidestepped the question of whether or not she finds the actress likable. “Sure, she's kind of needy, but so are all actors.”

What does it really mean when we say an actress "annoys the shit" out of us, anyway? That we hate the roles she chooses? The paparazzi'd version of her life we see in US Weekly? Her insufficiently funny quips on the red carpet? Or, as Salon asked today, is it her face? In some ways, the point of sitting on the bleachers of celebrity culture is the thrill of judging with impunity. Unlike our neighbors or co-workers, we convince ourselves that famous actors, by dint of making their living entertaining us, have chosen to be judged. And judge we do. (This isn’t just a byproduct of our Twitter-enforced instapundit culture, either: “Let's get Entertainment Weekly and play my favorite new game: Love Her/Hate Him,” exclaims Will in a 1999 episode of Will & Grace.)

For someone who’s managed to win our seemingly arbitrary love, look no further than Hathaway’s fellow winning actress from Sunday night, the universally adored Jennifer Lawrence. She’s self-effacing and funny. She seems like an excellent party companion, taking just about every opportunity to mention how many shots she’s had (before appearing on Jimmy Kimmel, before the red carpet, after winning the Oscar for Best Actress). She doesn’t seem overly serious about Hollywood, and gently chided Hollywood royalty Jack Nicholson, “You’re being really rude,” when he interrupted a post-win interview. She doesn’t pretend that punishing body standards are anything but horrible. When she jokes about sucking in her stomach on the red carpet or her publicist hating her for eating a Philly cheesesteak (“There’s only so much Spanx can cover up!”), it feels real, not designed to fool her fans into thinking she’s not one of those salad-but-hold-the-dressing girls. Lawrence said she ordered McDonald’s on the red carpet at the Oscars.

Hathaway is a vegan.

At first blush, though, the two actresses have much in common. They’re both incredibly driven, making several films a year, and knew from a young age they wanted to be actresses. Much of what we love about Lawrence should also translate to love for Hathaway. When David Letterman asked Hathaway how she lost 25 pounds for her Les Miz role, she replied, “You don’t want to know. It would just make you worry.” J.Law drew props for confessing “I’m starving!” on the red carpet, but Hathaway has also described how she and Devil Wears Prada co-star Emily Blunt “would clutch at each other and cry because we were so hungry." Are these really that different?

The biggest difference between them is their interview and red-carpet persona. Hathaway doesn’t have the same down-to-earth delivery. She’s charming, but not funny. Meanwhile Lawrence manages to exude a best-friend vibe even at a behind-the-curtain Oscar press conference. Anyone who’s frozen up in front of the camera or in front of a crowd knows how hard it is to play a version of yourself and seem “natural” with all eyes on you. That Hathaway struggles with this should make her more relatable to us. Yet “I watch her in outtakes, and I feel like she’s not a real person,” writes a blogger at Crushable.

By contrast, even though she’s now an Oscar-winning actress, Lawrence still seems fresh. Hathaway, who has been acting for a decade and was a clear favorite for the Best Supporting Actress award, seems to fit the broader cultural pattern (I’ve called it the Hillary Catch-22) in which we simply don’t find successful, “perfect” women very likable. Lawrence is well aware that it serves her well to stay the underdog. She told Chelsea Handler about being in the grocery store and seeing her face on magazine covers. “I was like, I’m going to be that person that everybody hates because it’s like, ‘Here I am!’ all the time.”

And she’s probably right. “Young women in Hollywood cannot win, no matter what they do,” writes Roxane Gay in a searing takedown of the racist and sexist humor that pervaded Oscar night. “There are more than a few smart jokes that could illustrate this rock and hard place women in Hollywood are crammed into.” True, for actresses, cultivating a public personality is part of the job. And irrationality is part of being a fan. (See: the fact that Meryl Streep picks her wedgie and we love her all the more for it.) But it’s worth examining whether our biases have any basis. "It does get to me," Hathaway said of all the hate she has to deal with. After all, imagine what it would feel like to know that thousands of women are passing judgment every moment you open your mouth?

“Ladies,” began a Monday night tweet from Lena Dunham, someone who knows something about the hate of strangers, “Anne Hathaway is a feminist and she has amazing teeth. Let's save our bad attitudes for the ones who aren't advancing the cause." (lol @ ending with a dunham tweet)source

i know we're having oscars overload rn, but i thought this was interesting

in the press room she was pretty good until the "it came true" question, where she had this voice.. like she's trying to be all fragile and tender or something, and it just doesn't suit her.. apart from that is the most real i've seen her in the past couple months... I feel like she's trying to create this soft delicate person, and I just don't believe her.

Mine too. Anne does not seem genuine and, as I said in the other post, the breathy baby voice makes me crazy. Jennifer appears likable and unaffected. I know they're being compared because Oscar, but I don't think they could be any more different personality wise.

Yep, that's mine too. Anne reminds me so much of someone I used to be friends with, right down to the way she speaks, and she was absolutely insufferable to be around after awhile. I just get the same vibe off of Anne that I got from her, hence why I cannot stand her.

yep, i cant take anne and her fakeness. esp with her speeches "....*whispers* it came true... *normal voice* um i'd like to thank.." looool that was so fucking awkward, why did she think that was a good idea?

and i almost hurled when she teared up over the question in the press room, and a second later, she was all :D :D HEY MAN! :D :D .

i have to agree with you too. i don't like feeling this way and hate to even write it but it's the 21st century and by all means the way i as a nobody can express myself satisfyingly about these things.

i've been saying it since she got the role for les miserables. She's coming across so overwhelmingly fake and can't help it. She's one of those people who can't help but be fake after a certain life changing thing happens to you. I have been victim to that sort of mindset - once you've reached some sort of goal and others have accepted you for it you change so drastically it's awkward for the others who have seen you from the beginning to accept. i liked her until she got the part of fantine. and the osacrs has unfortunately done nothing for her authenticity outside of hollywood. it's made her worse as a "persona" and that's just quite upsetting to see. that's just the way it is for me too.

jennifer lawence is trying to stay real. and i like that about her. so yeah. :)

Lol yep. Remember how Anne said she partied on tables like Lindsay Lohan and was a "bad girl" only you just don't see evidence of it? And then in another interview around the same time she talked about how she was always a "good girl" and that's why she is so successful.

She just comes off as trying-too-hard and fake. And boring because she doesn't have a defined sense of self.

Sure she did. She was engaged to a felon who said he represented the Vatican. Instead he took investors' money to finance their lush lifestyle. He said she knew. She claimed she didn't. She backed away from him in a hurry when he was convicted.

not a huge fan of either but jlaw definitely lost points with me after reading up on the dumb things she's said. i realize that she's still pretty young though and she just doesn't know when to stop talking. people just see her whole oscar speech as ~omg she's so real and cute~ because all the other things she's said never made it to the headlines

I'm sorry, but she's said a handful of borderline offensive things, things people says out of actual ignorance, not bigotry (there is a significant difference). What's ironic is that Anne Hathaway has a similar history of saying equally ignorant things. Fact is EVERYBODY has a history of mis-speaking or saying something unintentionally offensive. It doesn't mean they should be burned at the stake.

What should happen is that people or bystanders should point out the flaw in that perspective and hopefully take the opportunity to educate the offender. Why complain when you can actually try to affect change.

"I never sit in judgment. Lindsay Lohan and I have more in common than people think," Hathaway tells The Sun. "We've all done things we shouldn't. It is just that I did stuff at college when nobody knew about it. I'm not a saint. I wasted time doing self-destructive things. I found out you can only dance on so many table tops." - Anne Hathaway

Lolwut. That's why people don't like her. She tries to be something she's not.

Yes, Anne might be OTT but she's so harmless and inoffensive. JLaw's shtick is just as fake, but when you read the crap she actually spouts under the pretenses that she's hi-larious, you realise she's absolutely worse.

me too.it is the only time i have ever personally hated a celebrity. she is a constant reminder of the contrast in how society treats people and has come to embrace, encourage, and symbolize everything that is wrong with white people society.

My farts sound better than most of those actors. I might have forgiven the caterwauling they call "singing" if the acting had not been total shit.

I am still butthurt she won the Oscar for Les Mis. She has done better work in better movies. Plus, it just adds on to the proof that if you lose weight and cut all your hair off, you'll get the gold statue.

anne's flaw, imo, is that she's too sweet and too passionate, honestly. it sounds terrible to say because those are good qualities to have, but it makes it so that when she's in your face a lot (like when doing press this year) it becomes too much to handle. she's the irl mia thermapolis, in an ironic twist of fate

and i really like anne and was defending her for most of awards season. but even i got sick of it after a while.

then again, i know there are people who are sick of jlaw too soo i guess it just depends on your own personality and what you can handle.

People have legit criticism of both of them and I totally agree they can be OTT, irritating, and annoying as fuck, but the level of hatred both of them get is NAGL. And in Anne's case, feels like a woman shouldn't be allowed to be ambitious and should learn to be demure~ and not forward and go-getting in getting what she wants.

I love JLaw, but she's a fucking moron sometimes and I accept this and the fact people don't like her for it. It's understandable, but goddamn people take it to a new level.

i don't care for JenLaw but for me, my dislike of her is escalated because of how much she's in my face tbh. like every time i go to tumblr she's all over everything with people going on and on about how 'omg quirky and real~ she is' and i just want them to shut the fuck up, jesus

Can't you unfollow them?I always don't understand that argument, doesn't your dashboard consist of the people that you chose to follow?I love JLaw, but I don't have her on my dashboard, if I wanna see her gifs I check her tag.

I think this I feel like both the love ad hatred is over the top and I agree that people really got in Anne's case while I don't love her most of my dislike comes from me feeling she's overhyped as an actress then who she is as a person or persona.

everyone has their reasons and they have all been reiterated over and over multiple times in dozens of posts over the last three days. anne and jennifer are different people who have their fans and their detractors. we could just not pit women against each other and understand that you can be a fan of someone while acknowledging that other people dislike them but i think that might be asking a little too much of ontd.

also i don't know anyone in real life who actually hates anne hathaway or jennifer lawrence.